VIA Launches A Graphics Card. Will It Work With Linux?

[DeepDayze]

MVP? Well, if that's the time scale let's start talking about the i810, i820, AMD-750 and 761, and the NForce 4.

Via has had plenty of decent chipsets. They've had their share of horrid ones, like every other manufacturer.

I gave the MVP chips as an example of one of their most horrid chipsets ever made (way back around 2000-2001)

Their most recent chipsets are a mixed bag though

[locovaca]

Nforce 4 is fine, still rocking on my Linux server-o-box. Not as good as Nforce 2, maybe, (SoundStorm!) but solid nonetheless.

Probably not bad as a server but the PCI latency issues make it fairly craptacular for anything that uses audio.

[BlackStar]

MVP? Well, if that's the time scale let's start talking about the i810, i820, AMD-750 and 761, and the NForce 4.

Via has had plenty of decent chipsets. They've had their share of horrid ones, like every other manufacturer.

Nforce 4 is fine, still rocking on my Linux server-o-box. Not as good as Nforce 2, maybe, (SoundStorm!) but solid nonetheless.

[locovaca]

Via's chips are definitely horrible under Windows and not just Linux (think their old MVP chipsets) It's all just cheap, weak hardware not really worth bothering with.

MVP? Well, if that's the time scale let's start talking about the i810, i820, AMD-750 and 761, and the NForce 4.

Via has had plenty of decent chipsets. They've had their share of horrid ones, like every other manufacturer.

[BlackStar]

I will PERSONALLY get 2 of them, one for Windows HTPC usage and the other to stick into a minix 780G running Ubuntu and see if the card's driver issues throttle me. Wish me luck.

If you are happy with one driver update per 12 months, don't upgrade your distro ever and don't care about 3d graphics then why not? Please blog/post about your experience, it will help others make more informed decisions - one way or another.

[Adarion]

You are really spending your money on such an uncertain thing? Well, that is either courageous or ... well, foolish

Indeed the manual says something about
"Operating System: Windows XP, Windows 7 and Linux" but reading shows limited Windows support (Vista not mentioned, not that Vista would be good for anything...), no BluRay for XP and Linux was mentioned with x86 (so probably no amd64 support).
99,9 % of the pages show Windows procedures and problems. "Linux" is just mentioned 2 times without any further hint. X.org or something not at all.
It's your money, I wish you luck but I am sure that you'll find out the many issues soon.

And I wouldn't spend any money on VIA anymore. Just had years of pain with their stuff (well, mainly the GPU side, the rest was so-so) I'll stay away from them.

[Fatfool]

BTw Linux support is mentioned:

http://resources.e-itx.com/via-eH1/UM_VIA-eH1_060.pdf

Whether or not in practice is up for testing.

[Fatfool]

Okay,


I think we can finally settle the issue of whether S3's drivers suck once and for all. I'm not talking about the older IGP Chrome HC series ones. Those obviously suck but let's test out the Chrome 400 series and higher will we? I've seen it's performance in windows, it's really not bad and I didn't run across any incompatibilities.

That was with a Chrome 430 ULP.


SO, what I suggest is one of the members here or Phoronix try to preorder one of these cards. These S3 cards sell out very quickly for some silly reason or another.

I will PERSONALLY get 2 of them, one for Windows HTPC usage and the other to stick into a minix 780G running Ubuntu and see if the card's driver issues throttle me. Wish me luck.

[jhansonxi]

The only reason I don't think that Via is the worst video/chipset vendor is because SiS already has that honor.

[LinuxID10T]

If they actually managed to create decent GNU/Linux drivers and maybe made them open source, then I think this would be an OK HTPC/low end card. The GPU supports VDPAU and it is present in the driver for the S3 Chrome 500 series, but I haven't tested if it actually works. AMD still lacks video acceleration.

The AMD problem is far more about IP problems than anything else. However, it does exist, and it DOES work. It may not be the greatest, but it is what we have. Plus, if you are willing to wait, it is a hell of a lot better than Nvidia on the open source side of things. Also, at the same price point, AMD will get you a lot more bang for you buck on Windows OR Linux.